


The Start Of Something New

by secretagentspydetectiveninja



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: (also with some marichat just because?? why not??), High School Musical References, M/M, a RIDICULOUS amount of high school musical references, anyway this ship needs more content so here i go, mostly just really fluffy and cheesy because i don't know how to write anything else, no one else is in it really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 09:52:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11757336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretagentspydetectiveninja/pseuds/secretagentspydetectiveninja
Summary: Kim accidentally realizes he's in love with his best friend thanks to a High School Musical song. And then the entire fic runs on High School Musical.





	The Start Of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> This is so cheesy I'm sorry, it's late and I ship it so hard and I didn't have time to write an entire Kimax AU of High School Musical so just have whatever this is instead

Kim often liked to listen to music while doing work. It either helped him concentrate by keeping his mind entertained enough to not get bored, or he could use it as an excuse to procrastinate while he picked out the perfect playlist. Music was good no matter what.

The library was fairly quiet, with only him and Max in here, but he decided to use headphones anyway. That would stop Max getting distracted, at least. They both had different tastes in music anyway.

Feeling in the mood for a surprise, Kim put his phone onto shuffle mode and sat back to listen. Huh… this was familiar. What was it? It sounded like something he hadn’t listened to in a long time.

_Livin’ in my own world, didn’t understand…_

Wait – he knew this! It was from High School Musical!

He had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself laughing. This movie! He used to be obsessed with it when he was little. He didn’t even realize the music was still on his phone!

_That anything can happen, when you take a chance…_

It didn’t surprise him that he still remembered every word off by heart. There was something so nostalgic about hearing this, like it made him feel like a little kid again. Memories of being glued to the TV, memorizing all the dialogue, all the dances, pretending to be the characters…

Oh yes, of course! He always pretended to be Troy. Heck, he _lived_ it. Troy Bolton was the entire reason Kim got into basketball in the first place, something he still enjoyed playing. And when he was younger, he used to fantasize about going to high school and being the basketball star, meeting a beautiful mystery girl who was good at maths, singing with her, falling in love…

Real life was nothing like that, of course. He wasn’t in lycée quite yet but he knew it wasn’t going to be anything like a cheesy musical. And when he had ended up having a crush on Chloé a while ago, he knew she was not the mystery girl he had always been dreaming about. Chloé was not remotely nerdy, or anything like Gabriella Montez whatsoever. If anything, Chloé was more of a Sharpay. A Sharpay who went and broke his heart.

Well, never mind. Maybe Kim’s nerdy mystery girl was still out there somewhere. Maybe he really would have to wait for lycée after all.

_And I know that something has changed, never felt this way, and right here tonight…_

It took a lot of restraint to not start singing along out loud. The High School Musical soundtrack was so good! How had he ever forgotten about it? How had he not gone back and listened to it after all these years?

Looking back down at his homework, it all looked like a confusing muddle to him. He just wasn’t in the mood for work right now. Glancing across the table, he saw that Max was concentrating hard on his own work. How did he do that? He was so smart, it was unbelievable. Even after all this time Kim found it hard to believe that someone as smart and awesome as Max was somehow best friends with an idiot like him.

_This could be the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you…_

Yeah, Chloé couldn’t be the nerdy mystery girl, there was no way. For starters, it never felt “right” to be around her. She was cute, sure, and did seem to treat Kim a tiny bit better than she treated most other people. But he just felt nervous around her. Asking her out had been one of the most nerve-wracking things he had ever done in his life. Being akumatized straight afterwards had not helped matters.

Was this nerdy mystery girl someone else that Kim knew? There were plenty of people he felt “right” around. And maybe he shouldn’t limit it to just girls. After all, he was 100% certain his first crush had been on Troy Bolton himself, of all people.

What about Marinette? Well, she was awesome, but she wasn’t nerdy. And anyway, Kim had already thought about her before and come to the conclusion that he preferred having her as a friend. Hmm, what other people felt “right”? He had plenty of friends. But none of them were nerdy enough to fit. Adrien was a great friend, and probably more of a Troy Bolton than he was… Juleka and Rose counted as friends, but he was fairly sure there was something going on between them… hanging out with Alix was kind of fun sometimes, though he didn’t like to admit it…

None of his classmates were nerdy! None of them were his Gabriella! Why couldn’t there be someone in the class who _liked_ maths, who would win a scholastic decathlon with no effort, who actually liked doing homework and–

“AchOO!”

Max had sneezed.

“Bless you,” Kim said. Then he froze.

Max.

Max was doing his homework. Max liked doing homework, in fact.

And Max liked maths. He was good at it. He joined all the academic school challenges, and always came first place.

Max was nerdy. Max was geeky.

Max was a “freaky genius guy”.

Could it be?

_I feel in my heart, the start of something new…_

The start of something new…

“Kim are you alright?”

Max had put his pencil down and was looking at Kim in concern.

Kim hadn’t even realized he had been staring. He had never even considered Max! Max was just his friend! They had been best friends for ages. Kim never had any reason to consider him. But now…

He gulped and tried to think of something to say. It was like his brain had completely shut down. The song carried on playing in the background, and every single word was resonating in his soul.

_And the world looks so much brighter with you by my side…_

Everything did feel right with Max. Everything did look bright. But that was nothing new. Things had always been better with Max around. That was why they were friends! Usually people found Kim annoying when he showed his true colours, talking too much and being a reckless idiot. But with Max he felt like he could always be himself. Max never judged him. Of course it felt right.

At this moment, though, it was starting to feel different. Like something had changed. And he had never felt this way.

Could it really be?

Was Max the mystery guy that Kim had always been dreaming of?

“Kim? Hello?”

Max waved a hand in front of Kim’s face.

“W-what? Oh… uh… yeah, I’m just…”

His brain still wasn’t working. Something really had changed.

He cleared his throat and said without thinking, “My head’s in the game but my heart’s in the song.”

Max chuckled. “You still have to do your homework though, Troy Bolton.”

Kim hadn’t expected Max to get the reference, but clearly his nerdy expertise extended to Disney Channel Original Movies too. He was so smart – it was just so cool!

Kim smiled and looked back down at his homework, but it still didn’t make any sense to him. Not right now. Not when he was so distracted suddenly. He wondered how that would go down tomorrow in class.

_“Kim, why haven’t you done your homework?” “Well I was too distracted yesterday because I realized I’m in love with my best friend…”_

In any case, he was not going to get it done at this exact moment. Perhaps later. Right now he needed time and space to think. He pushed his chair out and stood up.

“I’m going home,” he announced.

“Now?” Max asked.

“Yeah, I just feel like going home. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay then. See you later!”

Max smiled up at him, the same way as always, but for once it looked so cute that Kim hurried out of the room, feeling sure he would melt otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

Kim did not go straight home. He wandered around the streets of Paris, not knowing or caring where he was going. All he could think about was Max. He had put the headphones away but that song just kept playing over and over in his head.

_Now, looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…_

Thinking about Max’s eyes certainly did make his heart go a lot faster. Was he really in love with his best friend? Was this actually happening? All because a High School Musical song made him think about it?

Well, if he was Troy and Max was Gabriella, then he had to do something about it. He couldn’t just let this knowledge sit inside him. He had to let Max know how he felt.

But how? Last time with Chloé, things had been a disaster. Sure, Max would certainly be nicer about it. But what if it made things awkward? Kim hadn’t been friends with Chloé, he knew that her potentially turning him down probably wouldn’t change too much. But what about Max? If Max didn’t like him back like that, if he turned him down…

Kim realized his feet had carried him to the bakery that Marinette’s parents owned. He loved this place. Maybe a snack would do him good. And maybe he could go see if Marinette was around. At least she was someone he could trust, someone he could confide in about all this.

 

A few minutes later he left the bakery again, a snack in hand. Marinette had been up in her room apparently so he hadn’t got to talk to her. Never mind. It had been nice to see her parents again, anyway.

He was roused from his thoughts when he heard familiar voices coming from somewhere high up.

“…isn’t that right, princess?”

“Oh you silly kitty cat, I’ll be waiting!”

“Well I promise I won’t keep you waiting long.”

“And I promise I’ll try not to be asleep!”

Kim took a few steps away from the bakery and looked upwards. Up on Marinette’s balcony, he saw her standing there, talking to Chat Noir, who was sitting on the railing. No wait, they weren’t just talking! He was holding both her hands in his, looking right into her eyes. It almost looked like they were going to kiss.

Marinette and Chat Noir? Were they a couple or something? Kim rubbed his eyes and looked again, sure he couldn’t have seen that right. But nope – they were still there, still giggling and flirting with each other on that balcony. And their faces were even closer now. Closer and closer, until – there! Chat Noir gave her a little kiss on the cheek, slightly too long to be mistaken for a normal Parisian cheek kiss, and then hopped onto his baton and slid down to the ground. He landed right at Kim’s feet.

“Oh hi Kim!” Chat Noir said, waving.

“You… and Marinette…!”

“What? Oh, you saw that?” There was a slight blush on his cheeks. “I like to go visit my friend sometimes.”

“Friend? Are you sure?”

“Well yeah! She’s my friend!”

_I didn’t know it before, but now it’s easy to see…_

“Are you sure you don’t have a crush on her?” Kim asked. Chat blushed even harder.

“Alright, maybe a little crush. But don’t tell anyone.”

“It’s okay, I won’t. I know what it’s like to have a crush on a friend.”

“Chloé, huh?”

Kim shook his head. “No. Someone else.”

“Ah, okay.”

“So does Marinette like you back?”

Chat shrugged. “Who knows? She tells me she’s in love with a boy in her class. He’s probably a lot cooler than I am.”

“What? But you’re a superhero! There’s no one cooler than you!” Kim hoped he himself wasn’t blushing now. He had known for quite a while that he had a bit of a celebrity crush on Chat Noir. On Ladybug, too. Though who didn’t? They were amazing!

“Gee, thanks!” Chat winked and finger-gunned at him. “But anyway, I think she sees me as someone she can trust, someone she can confide in. To tell the truth, that’s how I saw her at first too. I don’t even know where this crush came from. It just suddenly hit me one day. One minute I liked her as a friend, and the next thing I know, I’m in love with her.”

_I never knew that it could happen ‘til it happened to me…_

“I know that feeling,” Kim said. “It literally just happened to me and uh… I don’t really know what to do…”

“Why don’t you go give your friend-turned-crush a little balcony visit?” Chat said, winking again. “Seems to be working fine for me.”

“Yeah, maybe I will…”

“What? I was kidding! Don’t climb onto a balcony, you’ll get hurt.”

“But Troy Bolton did it,” Kim said, memories of the first High School Musical movie flooding back into him suddenly. “He wanted to apologize to Gabriella, so he climbed up onto her balcony and then… sang her a song…”

A strange, stupid idea was forming in his brain. And as much as he tried to make it stop, it just wouldn’t.

“So you’re a High School Musical fan,” Chat Noir said.

“Are you?”

“Of course I am! Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat. Anyway Kim, go get’cha head in the game! Whatever you do, I’m sure it’ll work! I believe in you!”

“Thanks. And I believe in you and Marinette too.”

“I’ve gotta go now for a patrol, but I’ll see you later.”

Chat winked one last time, then ran off out of sight.

The reckless idea in Kim’s brain was now too strong to ignore. If he was going to be Troy Bolton then so be it. He would do it. It was cheesy, it was stupid, it was utterly ridiculous. But maybe it would be at least a little romantic. That would be better than nothing.

Quickly making his way over to Max’s house, he sent him a quick message.

**_Max, totally hypothetical question here, what would you say if I climbed up onto your balcony? Would that be creepy?_ **

He got a reply quite quickly.

**_Totally hypothetical answer: it wouldn’t be creepy, since it’s you. If it was someone I didn’t know that well then I would consider it creepy. But I would just assume someone had dared you to do it and you didn’t refuse._ **

Oh, thank goodness. He could go ahead with his plans. Holding his phone in his teeth, he used his arms and legs to climb up the nearby tree…

**_Kim, do you happen to be actually climbing onto my balcony right now? I am at home, you know. If you need me to go get you a helmet then I can do that. Or a bowl. I don’t want you injuring yourself._ **

**_So who challenged you to do it? Is it a race against someone? If it’s against Alix then I’m sorry but you have a 98% chance of losing._ **

**_Kim, that question definitely wasn’t hypothetical, was it? I’m standing on my balcony right now and I can see you climbing that tree. Next time just put your phone in your pocket. You’ll get drool all over it._ **

Kim made the final leap from the tree branch onto the balcony, landing in front of Max. Just the sight of him made Kim feel such an odd twinge in his chest that he wondered if he should just forget the stupid idea and run away. But no – he had made up his mind. He was going to do it. After all, he had climbed up here, hadn’t he?

“So, where is your opponent?” Max asked, looking over the edge.

Kim took his phone out of his mouth and wiped it on his hoodie. “There’s no opponent, actually. I came up here on my own.”

“Really? Why? I have a front door that you can use. It would be easier. Though if you were going for improving your physique by athletic activity then you’re certainly doing a good job.”

Seeing Max adjust his glasses and look Kim up and down as he was saying that…

He shook himself out of his lovestruck stupor and cleared his throat. “I have something to do. Just listen and um… don’t laugh or anything…”

He had the song he wanted on his phone. The song that had been stuck in his head all day. He tapped his phone screen, tapped the music icon… only to suddenly notice that his phone was only on 1% battery. And the next second the screen turned black.

No! He had forgotten to charge his phone earlier! Stupid, forgetful brain. It was going to ruin everything.

“Max, can I borrow your phone for a minute?” Kim asked.

“Sure.”

Max handed it over. Kim unlocked it – he knew the passcode of course, and Max knew his – and had a quick scroll through the music selection. Nope, it wasn’t there. He would just have to look it up instead. He opened up YouTube and typed in what he was looking for. Ah yes, there, results! So this wasn’t going to be a total loss after all!

Preparing himself to sing, he tapped on the first result.

**_Sorry, this video cannot be viewed on mobile._ **

Grrr! No! He tapped on the second result.

**_Sorry, this video cannot be viewed in your region._ **

What? Why not??? It was just a harmless song! He tapped on the third result, hoping that this time it would work.

There, yes! It was loading… that little circle going round and round… yes, this was promising… he knew Max’s wi-fi speed wasn’t the best, so of course it might take a moment or two to load fully, that was okay, as long as it didn’t buffer too much…

He turned up the volume and braced himself, forgetting all his fear.

And then a 30 second ad for Minecraft started playing.

“Oh forget it!” Kim snapped, going back to the home screen and giving the phone back to Max. “This isn’t working, never mind, just… just forget I even came here…”

He turned around and swung a leg over the balcony railing, wondering if he could jump down from here without breaking both his legs. Then he felt Max’s hand on his shoulder.

“Kim, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Really? It seems like it’s something important…”

Forget being subtle, forget being Troy Bolton. Kim sat on the railing and looked at the floor.

“I was just trying to do that thing! Like in High School Musical! That bit when Troy goes onto Gabriella’s balcony and sings that song to her, and it’s really sweet and everything. And I was going to do that but the music wasn’t loading! And now come to think of it, Troy didn’t even use background music, he just sang, ugh… I should have just done that too… actually what am I thinking… I can’t even _sing_ …”

He put his head in his hands, knowing he was blushing so hard his face must have been the colour of his hoodie.

“You were going to sing to me?”

It was impossible to tell what Max was thinking based on his voice alone. Kim just nodded, hoping he wasn’t about to get pushed off the balcony when Max inevitably started freaking out.

Except that Max didn’t freak out. In fact, Max started giggling.

“Yeah, I know, it was stupid of me,” Kim muttered, knowing he would probably laugh at himself too for doing something so ridiculous.

“No, no! I’m laughing because… well… it’s _cute_.”

Cute?

Most people thought Kim was annoying. Occasionally, kids who didn’t know him personally thought he was hot. Adults thought he was a troublemaker.

But no one, _no one_ , thought he was cute.

Hearing Max say it almost brought tears to his eyes.

He looked up slightly, still not daring to look at Max’s face. “You think I’m cute?”

“Yes! Climbing onto my balcony – with my permission first, too, which is a good deal better than Troy Bolton – and then wanting to sing to me? I would say it’s very cute indeed.”

_I know that something has changed, never felt this way, I know it for real…_

Kim finally looked at Max to see his cheerful, adoring expression. It was a face he had seen many times – when Max had given him the brooch on Valentine’s Day, when Kim congratulated Max on his win at the gaming tournament with Marinette, when they were at the zoo together and Kim was being a fool as usual…

And it was _wonderful_.

“Well, uh, I think you’re cute too,” he managed to say, though rather quietly.

“Thank you,” said Max, stepping a little closer, a little smirk on his face now. “In fact, I would go as far as to say that you’re What I’ve Been Looking For.”

Kim couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re a High School Musical fan too?”

“Contrary to what most people would expect, I absolutely love High School Musical. I always used to imagine myself as Gabriella, since I can relate with being considered the ‘genius kid’ when moving to a new school. And because I certainly have a thing for very cute jocks.”

That smirk was still on his face. Wait, was he flirting?! This was not at all what Kim had expected, yet he was far from disappointed. He took a deep breath and said, “Well I have a thing for very cute nerds, and you can Bet On It.”

Max laughed again. “I’m glad you told me! It was Now Or Never.”

“Yeah! There’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach!”

“We’re certainly going to Bop To The Top!”

“We are so Fabulous.”

“I guess you could say that The Boys Are Back.”

“And that this is… well…” Kim put the tiniest hint of a melody into his voice. “The Start… Of Something New?”

Max’s eyes almost looked like they had stars in them, they were so full of affection. “And it feels so right, to be here with you…”

“And now, looking in your eyes…”

“I feel in my heart…”

_The start of something new._

The words of the song couldn’t have been more accurate.

The memory of Chat Noir kissing Marinette’s cheek popped into Kim’s mind, and he decided to do it before he chickened out of it. Or wait… why just the cheek? Max liked him back, right? Why not kiss him properly?

He leaned forwards…

“OH HEY KIM! YOU DID THE BALCONY THING! YAY!”

Kim whirled around to see Chat Noir sitting on the roof of a nearby house, yelling at him and waving.

“Yeah, I did the balcony thing!” Kim called back.

“GOOD! I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU! ANYWAY I’M GONNA STOP SPYING ON YOU NOW, SO SEE YOU LATER!”

Chat Noir scampered over the edge of the roof and disappeared. Kim turned back to Max, his earlier courage having gone, and settled for pulling him into a tight hug instead. It was a running joke that Troy and Gabriella kept getting interrupted before they could kiss, right? Maybe that would happen with Kim and Max too.

But it didn’t matter. What mattered was that things had gone right. This really was the start of something new. And now, what kind of musical adventures would follow them? Would lycée really be like High School Musical?

No matter what, at least he had Max. They were all in this together.


End file.
